Questions

Questions clients ask about the Health Check

These are the questions clients ask before an AI Strategy Health Check: how blind spots are found, why a gate can cap a pillar, what a grade means, and what the assessment costs.

What is an AI readiness blind spot?

A blind spot is a capability where your own facts imply one level and the independent audit finds another. The AI Strategy Health Check charts both views side by side for every capability, and the gap between them — not the raw score — is what drives the remediation plan.

Why can a gate cap a whole pillar score?

A weighted average can hide a catastrophic gap, so 5 gates apply a hard ceiling after the average is taken. 4 of them cap the pillar outright — for example the DLP / ingestion gate holds the pillar at 2.0 when data protection scores 1 — proprietary data reaches models with no control.

What does "Not yet assessed" mean on a capability?

It means no independent observation and no client answer exists for that capability yet, so nothing has been scored. It is not a low score: an unassessed capability is reported as unassessed rather than counted as Level 1.

How does the Health Check credit work?

Sign any module within 60 days of your report and half your Health Check fee comes off the price. The window is 60 days from the date on your report, and the credit appears as its own line on the proposal so you can see exactly what came off.

Is employee activity monitored during the assessment?

No individual is monitored. People-side evidence comes from a 5-question pulse survey answered by employees, reported only as an aggregate spread of answers, and from documents your own team supplies.

What data leaves our systems?

Only what your team chooses to enter or upload into your private area of the portal: counts, owners, spend figures, and the documents you attach as evidence. Each organization's data is visible to that organization and its consultant, and to no other client.

How long does each assessment tier take?

Single-pillar check: 1–2 weeks from kick-off. Automated assessment: 2–3 weeks from kick-off. Senior-led assessment: 5–6 weeks from kick-off. Each window runs from kick-off, and the pace of the fact-gathering step is set by your own team.

What is a single-pillar check?

One pillar scored on its own, produced from your own data. It costs $3,500 and covers one pillar's facts, the independent audit of that pillar and a grade for that pillar alone. Credited in full against a full Health Check within 90 days.

What happens at day 90?

The pulse and the assessment are re-run so the same test that diagnosed the problem shows whether the fix held. Ongoing retainer includes the 90-day re-assessment and a monthly review of sanctioned and unsanctioned AI use, from $4,000 a month.

How is the readiness score calculated?

Each capability is rated 1 to 5 against a written standard. Capability ratings are averaged by weight into a pillar score, pillar scores are weighted into the overall figure, and any gate that fires caps the pillar afterwards.

What does a letter grade mean?

Grades are a display layer over the unchanged 1-to-5 score, so clients can read a result at a glance. F is the lowest band and S the highest; a score of 4.75 or above earns S.

Are all five pillars weighted the same?

No. Weights run from 4.2 to 5, set by how much risk each pillar carries, and they are fixed for every engagement so results stay comparable between organizations and between years.

How many remediation modules are there?

11. Each one is a fixed-price piece of work with a named success signal, and only the modules your own findings call for are quoted — nobody is sold the full set.

Do we have to buy remediation work after the assessment?

No. The report, the grades and the sequenced remediation plan are yours whether or not you engage anyone to deliver them, and each wave is funded on its own rather than as one total.

Who sees our report?

Your organization and the consultant running your engagement. Nothing is shared with another client, and the report is released to your portal deliberately rather than published.